Isotopic discrimination between carrion and elytra clippings of lab-reared American burying beetles (Nicrophorus americanus): Implications for conservation and evaluation of feeding relationships in the wild.

Rationale: Differences in stable isotope composition between an animal and its diet are quantified by experimentally derived diet-tissue discrimination factors. Appropriate discrimination factors between consumers and prey are essential for interpreting stable isotope patterns in ecological studies. While available for many taxa, these values are rarely estimated for organisms within the carrion food web.